MtMF x Het Nationale Theater x Studio Dries Verhoeven: Dear beloved friend
A special collaboration on 24 March, 8.15pm with: Het Nationale Theater, Studio Dries Verhoeven & Kininso Koncepts
“They will come, they will have no choice, they will come in their tens of thousands, in their millions.”
Dear beloved friend, is a live film performance. Straight from Nollywood, the heart of the African film industry, Kininso Koncepts’ incandescent performers enact our European nightmares. Via a live internet connection they address us in our comfortable theatre seats. Provocative, disruptive, and inescapable, like the future itself.
This live cinema performance will take place at de Koninklijke Schouwburg and is a collaboration with Het Nationale Theater. Afterwards, there will be a special post-screening discussion with Dries Verhoeven in the auditorium, moderated by social entrepreneur Ama van Dantzig.
With a sense of growing unease, Dries Verhoeven read about a future African refugee influx and the continent’s expected birth explosion. “Where will this enormous group of people go in the predicted post-apocalyptic world?”
Verhoeven went to do his research and flew to the Nigerian city of Lagos, which is rapidly becoming the world’s largest city in an already densely populated country. As the problems pile up, he discovered a people bursting with energy and utopian thinking. Clearly, the apocalypse is not in fashion there. It’s hard to imagine a starker contrast with European fears. Are Nigerians fantasising against their better judgement? Or are we in Europe too fixated on the past?
Tickets for this special theatre performance in the Koninklijke Schouwburg are for sale via the button below.
What the press says about Dear beloved friend:
Verhoeven is a master at finding the right format for the right subject (…) a feat of technical virtuosity (…) a road trip about people fleeing misery in search of a long-vanished paradise.’
Hein Janssen in de Volkskrant **** Read the review here
It is one of his most politically-engaged productions, depicting a mass exodus from one continent and another continent struggling to cope with the influx. (…) apart from its political relevance, Dear Beloved Friend also urges us to detox from social media once in a while, and reset our brains.
Hein Janssen in de Volksrant **** Read the review here
Verhoeven deeply affects us by immersing us in unforgettable experiences. (…) young, self-assured, energetic Black Africans mock us, and how we see ourselves
Joost Ramaer on Theaterkrant.nl Read the review here
“I came here with plans to make a work about migration because I’d read an article about an imminent African exodus, but one of the group’s performers said: ‘You all seem to be going through a midlife crisis. You’re looking at tomorrow with apprehension, and are filled with nostalgia for yesterday.’ Their faith in the future contrasts with our desire to cling to the past.”
Lorianne van Gelder (Het Parool) interviewed Dries Verhoeven during the making of Dear beloved friend, (4 March 2023) Read the interview here
About Ama van Dantzig
Ama divides her time between Accra (Ghana) and Amsterdam – building bridges between seemingly opposite worlds. With vast experience on the ground in many countries and communities, Ama believes in the ability of people to generate ingenious solutions for the challenges of our time.
